


The Right Moment

by Kallonimo



Series: Shakarian Quarantine Project [64]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M, POV Garrus Vakarian, no beta we die like jenkins, prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:20:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25444579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kallonimo/pseuds/Kallonimo
Summary: Garrus keeps missing opportunities to tell Shepard he loves her.
Relationships: Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian
Series: Shakarian Quarantine Project [64]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1751218
Comments: 10
Kudos: 54





	The Right Moment

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt Category: Random  
> Prompt: But I’ve never told you that before

Garrus knows that he loves Shepard very early on. He first suspects he might when he leaves the Normandy after Saren and he just finds himself missing her. Her presence, her wandering into the shuttle bay to chat with him. He chalks it up to friendship at first but in the back of his mind he already knows, because he doesn’t miss the others as much. He spent just as much time around Wrex and Tali as he spent around Shepard but he doesn’t feel the sudden urge to call them in the middle of the night. The moment he really knows, the moment he admits it to himself, it’s too late. 

It’s on every screen that morning. The news broadcast. It’s blaring from the speakers of every elevator. Giant letters everywhere.

SSV NORMANDY ATTACKED BY UNKNOWN VESSEL: COMMANDER SHEPARD MISSING, PRESUMED DEAD

The details come in later. That she suffocated. That she managed to evacuate everyone. Liara calls him in tears before any of it is on the news. But Garrus knows it the moment he first hears that she’s missing. He loves her. And she’s gone. 

Garrus gives up. He goes to Omega. 

-

Shepard walks down the bridge and Garrus is convinced he’s hallucinating. Or dying. Maybe she is coming to gather him. Do Turians and Humans share an afterlife? Whatever this is it’s not real so he shoots at her and is shocked to see that the bullets not only hit her shield, they also earn him an annoyed look that he knows all too well. 

She raises her gun and shoots one of the merchs in front of her in the back, the two clad in white figures at her side follow suit. Garrus decides that if his hallucination is that helpful he might as well go with it and starts shooting again. 

Only a few minutes later Shepard is standing in front of him and Garrus is growing more and more convinced she’s real. Her armour is different and the tiny glowing scars on her face are new. There’s something in her eyes too. A fear and uncertainty that wasn’t there before, though she tries to hide it behind the same cool attitude he’s used to. 

Garrus takes off his helmet, revealing himself to her. Shepard smiles at him and he knows she’s real. She’s back.

-

He almost tells her before they enter the relay. He just wants to pull her into another room, somewhere the others can’t hear them and tell her. “No matter what happens, I love you.” But she’s so concentrated, Garrus doesn’t want to break that. And Miranda is pretty much glued to her side. Shepard chooses him to lead the second team and all Garrus gets out before they are split up is “If I don’t see you again, it’s been an honour.” 

“Don’t”, Shepard shakes her head. “We’ll make it. All of us.”

“But if…”

“No but”, she cuts him off “You will make it Garrus, you hear me? You will make it and you will make sure everyone else makes it. I’m counting on you.”

He nods. “Yes ma’am.”

Shepard shakes her head and smiles. 

-

“We made it”

“Yeah”

“Listen, if you want me to come with you…”

“No”, Shepard sighs. “There’s no reason you should get yourself arrested by the Alliance. You’ll do much more good on Palaven, we need to warn people.”

“I know it’s just…”, Garrus stops, trying to find the right words “I’m worried about you.”

“I’ll be fine”, she tries to reassure him, but doesn’t sound to convinced herself. “Just...warn them.”

“I will.”

-

It takes him all of his self control to not just grab and kiss her on Menae. Shepard looks good. The glowing scars on her face have long since faded and she has put on some muscle in house arrest. Though she also looks more stressed then ever before. Garrus notices she is studying the scarred side of his face, it must look strange to her. It was still bandaged when he left the Normandy. Both of them have changed but the moment he looks in her eyes he knows she’s still the same. Still his Shepard. 

She visits him in the main battery later, just like she used to before the relay and this time Garrus does grab and kiss her. Shepard wraps her arms around his neck, smiling into the kiss. “I missed you too.”

Garrus laughs. He almost tells her he loves her too, right there, but stops himself. Not the time. Not the place. They have been separated for six months and he doesn’t know if she ever had feelings for him in the first place.

-

“I am Garrus Vakarian and THIS is my favourite spot on the Citadel.”

Shepard laughs, putting down the sniper rifle. “It’s windy up here.”

“There there, I knows there’s other things you’re good at.” He wraps an arm around her shoulders and kisses her.

Shepard smiles and leans into him “I love you.”

Garrus just...stares at her. Shepard draws her eyebrows together. Then, when he still doesn’t respond her face grows red. “Uhhhh...I’m sorry if….”

“No no no”, Garrus interrupts her “I love you too. I love you so fucking much. I have for years. I just….I never managed to tell you and now you did first.”

Shepard mouths starts twitching and Garrus knows her well enough to know what that means. “Let it out.”

She starts laughing hysterically. Eventually she manages to gasp out. “How...long….”

“Since the SR-1”

Shepard starts laughing even harder and Garrus just stand there and fondly looks at her while she wheezes. Yeah, this is the woman he loves. This is the side of Commander Shepard only a few people ever get to see and he loves it. 

“Vakarian I swear you are so fucking awkward.”

„And yet you still love me, apparently.”

“I do, I absolutely do”, Shepard straightens herself, breathing slowly and deliberately. “I love you.”

Garrus hugs her. “I love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading :D


End file.
